Opinions on aged water

[Hally M.]

What is everyone’s thoughts on aging water. Benefits are??? I’ve done some research. All I got essentially was just that it helps detox the water of chlorine and such? But then do we not need declorinater if we age the water!?!?? So confused. 
 

does anyone here age water with tannins?

Edited October 2, 2022 by Hally M.

[Cleveland M]

If you age it then you don't need to dechlorinate. However, if something goes wrong with the municipal water and they super chlorinate it or worse add chloramine then you probably won't know it until you put it in your tanks and your fish are suffering.

 

[Fish Folk]

On 10/2/2022 at 4:33 PM, Hally M. said:

What is everyone’s thoughts on aging water. Benefits are??? I’ve done some research. All I got essentially was just that it helps detox the water of chlorine and such? But then do we not need declorinater if we age the water!?!?? So confused. 
 

does anyone here age water with tannins?

Aging water (often referred to as “resting water”) is a process of holding  water from the tap in order to do the following:

(1) Gas off. If an air stone is added, this balances dissolved gasses which can be in an unnatural state from the faucet. Cold water lines hold loads of gasses, which sometimes can give fish something like the bends.

(2) Furthermore, Chlorine may “gas off” over a 48 hr resting with air stone. I have never tested this empirically. I’m not sure if Chloramine gasses off this way.

(3) Move towards a standard pH. From the tap, my pH is about 8.0, but settles down to 7.4 once rested.

(4) Treat water — tannins, etc — before adding.

I’ve done this occasionally, but not regularly. This happens _in the tank_ normally anyway.

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by Fish Folk

[Hally M.]

Interesting thank you! This is all very helpful information 🙂

[lefty o]

holding water to offgas chlorine is a good idea, but unless you know what type of water treatment is done, just assume they use chloramines, and those dont readily offgas.

[Flumpweesel]

It can be useful and was certainly what was done before chemical dechlorinator was available

This thread discusses the topic at length.

https://forum.aquariumcoop.com/topic/18773-bad-gas/

[Pepere]

I started fish keeping in 1969 at 4 years old.  Back then there was only chlorine in the water and that is what we did.  I had a 10 gallon tank and I would fill two 1 gallon glass jugs that we had and set it on the counter for 2-3 days and then do the water change.

I remember when the city sent notices in the water bill that they were going to add chloramine to the water and letting fish keepers know that aging the water would not be sufficient to remove the chloramine.

They advised us to buy water conditioner at our fish store…

[Guppysnail]

This should help answer your questions on aging water 

 

Edited October 2, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Scapexghost]

On 10/2/2022 at 4:46 PM, lefty o said:

holding water to offgas chlorine is a good idea, but unless you know what type of water treatment is done, just assume they use chloramines, and those dont readily offgas.

You can check here to see if your municipality uses chloramine.

[Hally M.]

What would the aging process look like?

How would we set this up?

[Scapexghost]

On 10/2/2022 at 6:24 PM, Hally M. said:

What would the aging process look like?

How would we set this up?

1) get a bucket

2) fill it with water

3) wait

 

If you want to speed up the process, add an airstone

Edited October 3, 2022 by Scapexghost

[Hally M.]

Hahahah!! Thank you! I’m an over thinker, over analyzer if you couldn’t tell. 

[Pepere]

You could develop a ritual dance to help it along…. At the very least it could help pass the time.

[RockMongler]

Just remember, aging water only gets rid of chlorine, not chloramine or other additives.  

I personally often age even my chemically treated water in a bucket, because my main tank is a room temperature setup, so I might fill it up one day, but actually do my water change the next day.  It gets the temperature in the tank and the bucket to be very close with little effort.  This doesn't work as well if you have heated tanks.

[Odd Duck]

On 10/2/2022 at 5:48 PM, Guppysnail said:

This should help answer your questions on aging water 

 

Once again, our resident physicist @dasaltemelosguyhas the answers, and @Guppysnail’s somewhat mysterious mind remembers the link.  How do you remember all these threads? I bow down to both of them!

If your city/town/village only uses chlorine, you can absolutely off-gas it by running an airstone in a bucket for 24-48 hours like we did “back in the day”.  But if they use chloramine, it is significantly more persistent (which is exactly why they use it), and you would have to run that airstone in the water in a bucket for about 8 days.

I’ll just use my dechlorinator, thanks.  I ain’t got time and not nearly enough buckets to wait 8 days between water changes!  Too many tanks!  😆 😉 

[jwcarlson]

I age water 24 hours for my discus water changes nightly.  The main reason is that my pH shifts by 1.3 (from 7 to 8.3) and that's supposed to be stressful in large water changes (I'm doing 90%ers).  If it was smaller, it might not matter.  Additionally, I do not have a way to bypass my ion exchange unit (water softener) for hot water, and I don't want to use that water in my tank.  So I age and preheat.  

I would caution everyone to always use a dechlorinator capable of dealing with chloramines because they do not offgas the same as chlorine does.  Much more stable.  Almost lost all my discus when the city apparently switched from chlorine to chloramine early this spring.  Lesson learned 🙂

Edited October 3, 2022 by jwcarlson

[Guppysnail]

On 10/3/2022 at 12:48 PM, Odd Duck said:

How do you remember all these threads?

I only remember the really good ones 🤗

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I have a rather complex water prep system. Since I only have 5 tanks all under 20 gallons I have 10, one gallon water jugs on standby for water changes. 

• First I boil 1-3 Indian Almond or Catappa leaves in a stockpot, once boiling I turn off the heat and put the lid on the pot let steep anywhere from 12-24 hours. 
• Once I'm ready to make the water I pour approximately 2-3 inches of the above tea into each of my water jugs. 
• Fill the bottles the rest of the way from tap (cold water as the hot water seems to have more trace elements in it- old house)
• Dechlorinate with Fritz water conditioner (4-10 drops per gallon per Fritz when I inquired with them directly)
• Let stand overnight typically with caps off (don't know why but I've always done this maybe it was old school information about gassing off). Usually between 12-24 hours later put the caps on and store until needed.

Sounds like a lot but my water changes in the 20s are usually no more than 3 gallons if that- I have 2 tanks that hover in the 10 gallon range which only get a 1 gallon water change if that- and 1 tank is only 4 gallons and I only use a cup to remove floaters (duckweed and red roots that LOVE this tank) once a week or so since they overpopulate. It takes me a bit to use all 10 gallons, usually a couple of weeks at the least. I actually don't mind doing it either- and I've had healthier fish since the addition of the IAL. 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

You can run into issues with micro bubbles during periods of big fluctuations in local temperatures. Water that’s close to freezing runs through the pipes, water heaters  and tubing at a warmer temp with the agitation producing  micro bubbles that can cause air emboli in your fish. If you age it in the winter you avoid this. 

Credit Gary Lange for this information.

[redfish]

On 10/3/2022 at 3:20 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

I have a rather complex water prep system. Since I only have 5 tanks all under 20 gallons I have 10, one gallon water jugs on standby for water changes. 

What type of jugs?  I’ve been keeping generic 1 gallon water jugs from the grocery store.  I fill with tap water and treat with dechlor.  Really helps with top off as needed and water changes.  I can adjust temps by moving them into a sunny window if needed.
 

I haven’t noticed any issues but I see some coloration changes with the jugs.  Might have to rotate them after a given timeframe.  

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@redfish nothin special, like you just jugs from drinking water- when one gets worn out I go and buy another- very convenient. They're also square Crystal Geyser gallons so they store easier than some. 

Mine definitely change color just because of the "tea" I use. I don't have a lot of the same concerns other fish keepers do about water changes, the water is "aged", dechlorinated and has plenty of IAL in them. My system really does help with temperature as the water is stored in the same room my tanks are- and I don't use heaters so no concerns really. I do have a heater in my Betta tank but using room temp water doesn't really bring his tank temp down at all. 

Edited October 4, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX